Digital Storytelling Workshops

We are awash in data. How do we make sense of data and turn it into narratives? This class will go over how anyone can find data, put it into a simple format, analyze the data, and then publish that data as an engaging narrative or story. More specifically, we’ll collect data on endangered species in Marin County, their pictures, and turn this into a story about the endangered species population here in Marin. The digital storytelling skills taught will be broadly transferrable to uses in education, marketing, government, and communications.

About the Instructor:
Alex Salkever is Head of Marketing at Silk.co and a Mill Valley resident. He is the former editor of BusinessWeek.com and the co-author of The Immigrant Exodus, listed on the 2012 “Books of the Year” by The Economist. He has been a senior marketing and business executive at a wide variety of technology companies and is also an avid writer and digital storyteller. He also worked as a freelance journalist based in Hawaii, writing about science, technology and travel for The Christian Science Monitor, Outside, Wired, Travel & Leisure, and, curiously, Bride’s Magazine.

RadioLab, This American Life, and Snap Judgment all use music and sound to bring stories to life. Learn about the theories and techniques behind this popular trend from KALW’s senior sound engineer Chris Hoff. Explore how to score your own story and learn how to make music do what you want it to do.

Record your story and have it archived in the Library of Congress. Library staff will guide you and a partner on how to use the new Storycorps App to find and share your most compelling stories. Come with a friend or relative or on your own.

Note: you must have an iphone, ipad, or smartphone to download the app. If you don’t, please contact the library and we can make arrangements.

In this three-part series, you will focus on the building blocks of creating a powerful digital story. REGISTER HERE

Photography: Learn to capture a powerful moment with a camera lens from an award winning photojournalist. After this session, you can use the techniques to take photos for your digital story. Or, you may already have photos in mind that you will now be able to examine with critical eye.Sat. 3/07/15 2-4 PM

Story Development: In this session you will learn to find, structure and write your story. You will listen to examples of good stories and examine what makes them compelling. Instructors will share storytelling methods developed by the Center for Digital Storytelling, as well as secret storytelling formulas employed by This American Life and Serial staff.Sat. 3/14/15 2-5 PM

iMovie: Learn how to create a movie using iMovie. Class will cover the iMovie workspace, how to edit video footage, how to incorporate still images, how add voiceover narration, music and sound effects, how to pan and zoom, how to add titles and how to export your movie to share with others.Sat. 3/21/15 2-5 PM

Photography Instructor:Penni Gladstone is an award winning photojournalist, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize twice. She has worked as a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury, and the San Francsico Chronicle. Her job has sent her to the jungles of Guatamala, to the street gangs of Oakland, Ca. and to photograph the President of the United States.

Imovie Instructor: Lynne Watenpaugh has been a public school teacher for over twenty years. During her career she has taught both children and adults. She currently teaches technology classes at Mill Valley Middle School. She sees technology as a tool to manipulate in order to express one’s ideas. She has an undergraduate degree in English from UCLA, a Master Degree in Instructional Technology from San Francisco State University, is a California Writing Project Fellow, and a Google Certified Teacher.

We all have at least one or two—those old photos that capture a moment in time with piercing accuracy. Now is your chance to take that photo and turn it into a powerful digital story. Digital storytelling is the process by which people share personal tales and creative thoughts with others using a combination of digitized images, narration and music.

Explore digital storytelling through a workshop at the Library. Our Snapshot Workshop is a one day workshop in which you will create a three-to-five-minute story based on the photo of your choice.

Check out our Digital Stories page to see examples of stories created in previous sessions.

How often do you have the opportunity to reflect and create something meaningful in your adult life? Come explore the form of digital storytelling. The Library is extremely pleased to partner with the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley to provide an incredible opportunity to Mill Valley residents. Digital storytelling is the process by which people share personal tales and creative thoughts with others using a combination of digitized still and moving images and sound.

Space is limited so the library will be giving special consideration to participants who would be interested in volunteering to help lead digital storytelling workshops at the Library in the future. Sharing one’s completed work publicly and other requirements apply.

Click here to see examples of digital stories from previous workshops.

Standard Workshop – A four-day session that supports participants in producing their own digital stories. Participants will design, produce and edit a three- to five-minute digital story. You must be available to attend all four workshops.Workshop Dates:Tuesday, October 29th, 5-9pm
Wednesday, October 30th, 5-9pm
Saturday, November 2nd, 9-5pm
Sunday, November 3rd, 9-5pm

How often do you have the opportunity to reflect and create something meaningful in your adult life? Come explore the form of digital storytelling. The Library is extremely pleased to partner with the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley to provide an incredible opportunity to those interested in sharing their story in a powerful way. In this one-day workshop will participants will create a digital story based on a single photo. Digital storytelling is the process by which people share personal tales and creative thoughts with others using a combination of digitized still and moving images and sound.

Click here to see examples of digital stories from previous workshops.